Bunch of funny lines in the article, pull quoted below:

The most consequential military development of the past few years – and there have been legion – is empirical proof that expeditionary navies are obsolete. China proved it in the South China Sea. Ukraine proved it in the Black Sea. And the Houthis (the Houthis!) proved it in the Red Sea.

What China really wants in the South China Sea is a theater, far away from anything of real value (Taiwan, for example), to demonstrate US Naval impotence for all of Asia to witness.

That the Houthis fought the US Navy to a draw can only be seen as a humiliating defeat by Asia. Compare Japan (and South Korea/Taiwan/Australia) to the Instagram model who just watched her bodybuilder boyfriend get beat up by a skinny migrant worker.

This should benefit everyone involved, from put upon Europeans to the bonsai-ed Japan and South Korea (see here) to LGBTQIAS2S+-ed Taiwan (see here) to Legalist Qin-esque PRC able to finally relax into its Confucian Tang-esque form. Most of all, it will benefit the United States of America, which can finally come home, circle wagons, lick wounds, plant trees and recover from eight decades of shouldering the costs of hegemony.

gay ppl caught an unnecessary stray right at the end there not pleased with that but I figured it'd be fun to share this since it's hopeful and maybe could come to fruition. At the very least, I can follow the logic and hope it comes true.

Pasting this here from a comment I made in a tangential thread:

I played through this game hoping for the best this past weekend. The highest praise i can give is that while the presentation is perfect, the gameplay is half baked at best and frustrating at its worst.

The echoes are a great idea but they’re seriously lacking in depth. Maybe 5 of them can be used for almost every “puzzle”. The stronger combat echoes trivialize the combat. The dungeons are too short and simple save for maybe one or two of them. Thinking i liked gerudo, zora, and faron the best.

I was totally mesmerized by being able to traverse a “2d” zelda map in the manner that some of the more vertically inclined echoes. They even present you with some classic zelda dungeon rooms that can be maneuvered in the classic way or be completely subverted by the player if you remember you’re playing the new game. which is very satisfying the first few times. However, by hour ten and in the last few dungeons that novelty wore off and it became very clear they forgot to make any kind of challenging puzzle involving clever echo use beyond flying tile + platboom or water tile. i don’t think zelda games have ever been or have supposed to be “challenging” but I don’t think i’m off base asserting that some puzzles aren’t immediately solvable in older games.

The menus are dogshit and waste you time. The dialogue boxes waste your time. Resetting mini games waste your time. Making smoothies wastes your time. Sorting through your 127 echoes wastes your time. I’m not sure why this is acceptable but the only answer is that ppl buy it and complaints don’t have to be heard after they have your money so fuck it i guess. The only way to get a solid game out of these stooges is to force system memory limitations on them again.

Oh did you want to play in the old style? don’t worry we put that on a timer and you can go into link mode and feel what it’s like to play a tight lovingly crafted game for a few fleeting moments before your juice bar hits 0.

The dialogue itself is good. the tutorials aren’t annoying. tri is a good companion. i adore the art style. There is a lot of observational skill involved with some hidden items and heart pieces. I had fun, but I feel like they stopped just short of making a 10/10 to intetionslly a 5/10 baby game. Games are for children. just go play Tunic

WdyT?

https://twitter.com/hausofdecline/status/1797283721084576141

to the meme of all time